Urban Historical Stratum: From Smyrna to İzmir

The dynamic structure of cities in socio-economic and spatial aspects requires thoughtful and sensitive planning implications. In this context, the issue of the conservation of archaeological and historic characteris­tics of cities needs to be addressed. This issue has recently been on the agenda of the actors, who lead urban development. The conservation of archaeological and historic characteristics of cities requires a sci­entific opproach. Since the studies concerning the common heritage of humanity and the conservation of archaeological and historical assets have a supranational quality, they mostly exceed the national urban scale and are dealt with by international approaches. It is observed that many international studies have been carried out in order to develop common scientific approaches and take decisions with a view to conserving the archaeological potentials of urban areas. In parallel to these international approaches, there are also national interventions to make some regulations for the protection and utilization of the archaeological heritage of cities. Some of them include the formation of legal and administrative systems that frame the urban development-led and / or preventive archeological activity sites. Within the scope of this study, it is intended to discuss the development of the international legal frame work leading the urban-preventive-development-led archaeological approaches, and the legal and administrative regulations, which were put into use by the European countries on the basis of this framework. The first section summarizes the conceptual framework on which the implementations about the conservation of archaeological heritage in cities are grounded. The second section discusses the development of the international legal framework. The last section discusses the impor­tant legal and institutional regulations in various European countries.